Writing this on Father’s Day, June 21, I would like to share five generations of Ferguson fathers.
Abner B. Ferguson
We are most familiar with Thompson Benton (T.B.) Ferguson, governor of Oklahoma Territory. His father was Abner B. Ferguson (1823-1900) who enlisted in the Union Army during the civil war when T.B. was three Thompson Benton Ferguson Wikipedia. Abner’s wife died in 1860 when their son, Thompson Benton Ferguson was young.
Thompson Benton Ferguson
T. B. Ferguson was born March 17, 1857 near Des Moines, Iowa. He was raised by his sister and attended public school. He graduated from the Kansas State Normal School (now Emporia State University) at Emporia in 1884, financing his education through teaching.[2] After finishing college, he was ordained as a Methodist minister and after a short time moved to Chautauqua County, Kansas. There, Ferguson taught school for nine years.” He On June 9, 1885 at age 28, Ferguson married 16-year-old Elva Ursula Shartel Ferguson.
Children of T.B. and Elva Ferguson
T.B. and Elva Ferguson had five children including three girls who all died in infancy or childhood. However, two sons, Walter Scott Ferguson (1886-1936) and his younger brother, Tom Jr. “Trad” (born May 3, 1891) arrived in Watonga at about 18 months of age. Trad died of the Spanish Influenza in January 1919 while in the Army Air Corps at Ft. Sill. He had been married only about six months.
Walter Scott Ferguson
Walter Scott (1886-1936) and his wife Lucia Loomis Ferguson (1887-1962) had three children: Ruth Elva, Thomas Benton and Thomas Bruce Ferguson. Ruth Elva was born in Cherokee, OK in 1916 where the Ferguson published the Cherokee Republican. Ruth, in later life, edited columns written by her mother’s Scripps-syndicated column, “A woman’s View”. Thomas Benton was born in the NW bedroom of the Ferguson Home in Watonga in 1919. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma, he worked on the advertising staff of the Fort Worth Press and illustrated personality sketches of local figures (also his grandmother Elva’s book, “They Carried the Torch…”). Benton and Ruth compiled their mother’s 37 years of writing into the book “A Woman’s Viewpoint: The best Columns of Lucia Loomis Ferguson” (the museum has a copy). I don’t have information about children of Benton or Ruth.
Thomas Bruce Ferguson, MD
The third child, Thomas Bruce Ferguson, MD (1923-2013) was a cardiovascular surgeon and president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and Society of Thoracic Surgeons and editor of the Society’s Journal. He pioneered cardiovascular surgery at Washington University Thomas Bruce Ferguson Obituary.
Bruce Ferguson, MD
The fifth generation of Ferguson fathers include the children of Dr. Thomas Bruce Ferguson: Bruce, Linda and Scott. Bruce Ferguson is a cardiovascular surgeon at East Carolina Heart Institute at East Carolina University and now Chief Medical Officer at RFPi, Inc. Dr. Bruce Ferguson.
There you have five remarkable generations of Ferguson fathers. This is the information I have tracing male family members who had male children. Corrections or additions are appreciated.
Joe P. Bryan, MD
Board Member, Friends of the Ferguson Home Museum